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Dr Karen Bultitude oversees a wide project portfolio related to methods of engaging public audiences through 'live' interventions. Recent and current research relates to an international review of science festivals; gender-aware teaching in the physical sciences; a comparison of national strategies for science communication; and researcher motivations for becoming involved in public engagement activities. Karen is one of nine national Public Engagement mentors for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK and in 2008 was awarded the prestigious Joshua Phillips Memorial Prize for Innovation in Science Engagement. Dr Ana Margarida Sardo conducted this work whilst a Research Fellow in the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her research interests include science contributions to environmental policymaking, good practices in communication science and key communication skills in recent graduates. Leisure and pleasure: science events in unusual locations IJSE: B 2 Building on concepts relating to informal science education, this work compares science-related activities which successfully engaged public audiences at three different 'generic' locations: a garden festival, a public park, and a music festival. The purpose was to identify what factors contribute to the perceived success of science communication activities occurring within leisure spaces. This paper reports the results of 71 short (2-3 minute) structured interviews with public participants at the events, and 18 structured observations sessions, demonstrating that the events were considered both novel and interesting by the participants. Audience members were found to perceive both educational and affective purposes from the events. Three key elements were identified as contributing to the success of the activities across the three 'generic venues': the informality of the surroundings, the involvement of 'real' scientists, and the opportunity to re-engage participants with scientific concepts outside formal education.

Effective training in key communications5 stated that science policy relies ever more on public involvement and engagement, communication of science and dialogue, as well as on science and its social and ethical implications.Within this context, key actors in science -researchers and engineers, science institutions, and science centre and museum explainers -are increasingly being called upon to engage directly with the public. Various training programmes for public engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have been developed to provide both scientists and explainers with the support they need to be able to communicate effectively. However, to date each training programme has remained relatively isolated, pursuing its own path with little to no comparison between different programmes, and lacking an over-arching investigation of best practice.Comparative evaluation of communications training programmes is constricted by the wide diversity of course formats and delivery mechanisms. Programmes can range from external one-day training courses to in-house workshops at science centres and museums to formal degree programmes which usually take a

Governmental and institutional policy making in a number of countries has embedded public engagement strategies as a primary channel to connect citizens with scientific and technological innovation. Robotics is emerging as a key site for such new technological activity and its applications are likely to be increasingly notable in our lives in coming years. Robotics researchers are investing considerable time and effort in “engaging” publics. Concentrating on the findings of 24 qualitative interviews with those actively organizing or engaging publics, across 11 public engagement activities focused on the robotics field within the United Kingdom, this article explores their conceptions of “public engagement” and its benefits and constraints. The results suggest that while the language of engagement has been embraced there remain practical, conceptual, and individual influences on the level of engagement which is experienced.

With at least 150 million professional and amateur blogs on the Internet, blogging offers a potentially powerful tool for engaging large and diverse audiences with science. This article investigates science blogging practices to uncover key trends, including bloggers’ self-perceptions of their role. Interviews with seven of the most popular science bloggers revealed them to be driven by intrinsic personal motivations. Wishing to pursue their love of writing and share their passion for science, they produce content suitable for niche audiences of science enthusiasts, although they do not assume background scientific knowledge. A content analysis of 1000 blog posts and comparison with the most popular blogs on the Internet further confirmed this result and additionally identified key factors that affect science blog popularity, including update frequency, topic diversity and the inclusion of non-text elements (especially images and video).